1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a graph representation of command structures and traversing the graph representation when a command is communicated from at least one system to at least another system and in particular to a combination associative and directed graph representation of command structures and traversing the combination associative and directed graph when a command is communicated from at least one system to at least another system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer command (i.e. a request or a response to a request) is represented by computer command structures. These command structures are modeled by graph representations. The two most common command structures are the associative graph representation and the directed graph representation.
The associative graph representation relates components via associations or named roles. The associations are coupled with a named role. For example, a terminal feature is related to the terminal file list by an association role file list. The association that contains the association role file list provides the relation of the terminal feature to the terminal file list.
The directed graph representation contain references to the objects to which they are related. The components have a relationship to each other, and they are structured in a hierarchy in this directed graph representation. The components have a knowledge of their immediate xe2x80x9cparentxe2x80x9d as well as references to their xe2x80x9cchildrenxe2x80x9d.
When a command is sent from one system to another system in which the one system is different from the other system, simulation of information between the two systems is needed. The command structures of the command, therefore, needs to be determined and traversed in order to send and process the command from the one system to the other system. Presently, either the directed graph representation or the associative graph representation is used to send and process a command from one system to another system. The use of either one of the graph representations presents the limitations that some of the command structures are not able to be simulated (i.e. either can process only associative command structures or only directive command structures), or the command processing involves the use and switching between the associative and directive graph representations, which can be very time consuming, tedious, and cumbersome processes and involve the use of more software and hardware.
However, a command may very well have command structures that are both represented by an associative graph(s) and a directed graph(s), but the problem exists in that no such graph representation exists to handle command structures with both an associative graph representation(s) and a directed graph representation(s).
It is therefore advantageous and desirable to provide a system and method of providing a combination associative and directed graph that is used for traversing command structures that are representative of a command that is communicated from at least one system to at least another system. It is further advantageous and desirable to provide a combination associative and directed graph that is used for traversing command structures that are representative of a command wherein the combination graph overcomes limitations and problems of prior art, such as the problem of some command structures not being able to be simulated (i.e. either can process only associative command structures or only directive command structures) or the problem that the command processing uses and switches between an associative graph and a directed graph. It is also advantageous and desirable to provide a combination associative and directed graph that involves a process that is less time consuming, tedious, and cumbersome and that uses less software and hardware. It is still also advantageous and desirable to provide a method of traversing a combination associative and directed graph that is representative of command structures of a command that is communicated from at least one system to at least another system wherein the combination associative and directed graph has a directed graph portion that is used for traversing hierarchical command structures and has an associative graph portion for traversing associative command structures.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a system and method of providing a combination associative and directed graph that is used for traversing command structures that are representative of a command that is communicated from at least one system to at least another system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a combination associative and directed graph that is used for traversing command structures that are representative of a command wherein the combination graph overcomes limitations and problems of prior art, such as the problem of some command structures not being able to be simulated (i.e. either can process only associative command structures or only directive command structures) or the problem that the command processing uses and switches between an associative graph and a directed graph.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a combination associative and directed graph that involves a process that is less time consuming, tedious, and cumbersome and that uses less software and hardware.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a method of traversing a combination associative and directed graph that is representative of command structures of a command that is communicated from at least one system to at least another system wherein the combination associative and directed graph has a directed graph portion that is used for traversing hierarchical command structures and has an associative graph portion for traversing associative command structures.
The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. A system and method of providing, using, and traversing a combination associative and directed graph that is used for traversing command structures that are representative of a command that is communicated from at least one system to at least another system. The combination associative and directed graph has a directed graph portion that is used for traversing hierarchical command structures and has an associative graph portion for traversing associative command structures. Data is provided for defining the directed graph portion. The directed graph portion is used for representing and traversing the command structures that have a relationship to each other or that have a hierarchical nature. The data that defines the directed graph portion is coupled to and below the command. Data is provided for defining the associative graph portion. The associative graph portion is used for representing and traversing the command structures that each have a named role or that have an associative nature. The data defining the associative graph portion is coupled to and below the command via a coupling component within the associative graph portion that is referenced by the directed graph portion. This coupling component is a terminal component. The system and method involves the determination of whether the command has at least one directive graph command structure that requires traversing the directive graph portion or at least one associative graph command that requires traversing the associative graph portion and the traversal of the respective graph portion.